MGEL is currently involved in two major projects centered on study of the loblolly pine genome. Specifically:

(1) Accelerating Pine Genomics (NSF DBI-0421717) - Click on project title to go to the project website
or click on the icons below to view information on the Pinus taeda
"7-56" BAC library or the DNA sequence data generated through NSF DBI-0421717.

About Loblolly Pine

Loblolly pine (LP; Pinus taeda L.) is an organism
of tremendous economic and ecological importance and a key representative of
the conifers, an ancient lineage of plants that dominate many of the worlds
temperate and boreal ecosystems (Earle 2005). LPs fast
growth, amenability to intensive silviculture, and high-quality lumber/pulp
have made it the cornerstone of the U.S. forest products industry and the most
economically important crop of any kind in the southeastern states. LP
is the most commonly planted tree species in America approximately 75% of
all seedlings planted each year are LPs (McKeand et al. 2003).
Pines and other trees are arguably America's greatest natural resource benefiting
humans and wildlife in countless ways. The yearly value of wood, paper,
and other tree products equals or exceeds that of every other U.S. crop while
the ornamental, aesthetic, recreational, and ecological value of trees is immeasurable.
Moreover, LP's ability to efficiently convert CO2 into biomass and its widespread
use as a plantation tree have also made it a cost-effective feedstock for lignocellulosic
ethanol production (Frederick et al. 2008) and a promising
tool in efforts to curb greenhouse gas levels via carbon sequestration (Gough
& Seiler 2004).

Bioenergy

Pines and other conifers are currently the focus of
extensive biomass research (for review, see Mead 2005 and
Rubilar et al. 2005) and are recognized by the Department
of Energy (DOE) as an important feedstock in current and future green energy
production (Perlack et al. 2005). While growing pine
trees simply as lignocellulosic feedstocks would be a questionable enterprise,
those parts of trees left after lumber and pulp have been extracted (e.g., needles,
small branches, bark, wood chips, sawdust, and pulping liquors) would seem an
ideal feedstock. Not only are such residues abundant, but they have traditionally
been used as a fuel (via combustion) to generate electricity/steam the forest
products industry co-generates over half of its electrical requirements in this
manner (DOE-EIA 2003). With relatively modest adaptations,
tree waste could be utilized in lignocellulosic ethanol production. Using
pine and other forest tree waste rather than human or animal foods (most notably
corn) as feedstocks helps keep food prices low and hopefully helps curb conversion
of productive forestlands into resource-intensive agricultural lands. Pine residues
can be used to generate ethanol via thermo-chemical conversion and standard
sugar fermentation (Barbosa et al. 1992;
Ewanick et al. 2007; Frederick et
al. 2008).

Global warming

Carbon sequestration by photosynthetic organisms is a promising
means of curbing global warming (Malhi et al. 2002;
Jackson & Schlesinger 2004), and consequently the DOE
has taken steps to identify and develop carbon sequestration species (see
Litynski et al. 2006 for review). Of note, forest and
tree plantations are highly promising terrestrial carbon sinks as CO2 fixation
on forest/plantation lands is ten times more efficient than carbon sequestration
in agricultural soils (Jackson & Schlesinger 2004). This
finding is supported by a continuing continent-wide study of carbon dioxide
exchange that reveals forests to be the principal biological carbon sinks in
North America (Peters et al. 2007). Fast-growing
southern pines, most notably LP, appear to be among the most proficient plant
species in sequestering carbon (DeLucia et al. 1999;
Huang et al. 2004). In theory, conifers should be among
the best biological tools in fighting the greenhouse effect as they are long-lived
plants that convert a relatively large part of excess carbon stores into wood.
Additionally, most conifers do not shed the bulk of their needles/leaves at
the end of each growing season, and thus they do not turnover carbon at the
rate of deciduous trees. However, LaDeau and Clark (2001)
demonstrated that while standard plantation LPs grown in an environment enriched
in CO2 showed a marked increase in growth, the majority of sequestered carbon
was allocated to relatively transient reproductive structures (cones and seeds).
Moreover, the trees reached sexual maturity faster and were smaller at maturity.
Clearly, effective biological carbon sequestration will not simply be a matter
of growing more trees, but rather growing trees that are more effective at converting
carbon into wood.

Why is it important to understand the pine genome?

The demand for wood/fibers from southern yellow pines
is projected to increase 35-40% within the next 50 years to accommodate the
needs of a growing populace and to offset decreased tree harvesting in western
and northern states. However, the number of acres reserved for tree growth
is likely to decline. Consequently, the U.S. forest products industry
is looking for ways to significantly increase wood yields per acre, a pursuit
greatly limited by a paucity of information on pine genes. Despite the
importance of LP and other conifers, genomic sequence information for this taxon
is extremely limited. While EST resources for LP are relatively advanced,
efficient tree improvement will ultimately require integration of EST, sequence
polymorphism, gene expression, and genetic data with actual genomic DNA sequence
including non-coding regulatory regions missed by EST approaches. Isolation,
sequencing, and characterization of the genes of loblolly pine represents a
means to (1) better understand the evolutionary success of pine, (2) develop
environmentally sound strategies for dealing with pine diseases and pests, (3)
effectively manipulate genes responsible for pines many economic traits, and
(4) maximize yield per acre, a goal that is important to lumber and paper industries
as well as those interested in LP's potential as a bioenergy and carbon sequestration
species.